1. Barbara Rayment Youth Access
Counselling for young people and young adults in the voluntary and community sector: outcomes and demographics from a practice research network
Barbara Rayment
Youth Access

2. and the outcomes of counselling
Aim of study
To produce and disseminate reliable evidence on the profile of service users
and the outcomes of counselling
in the community-based settings of VCS Youth Information, Advice and Counselling Services(YIACS)

3. Who’s involved? Youth Access Prof. Mick Cooper
BACP: Dr Jo Pybis and Andy Hill
Dr Cathy Street
8 local Youth Information, Advice and Counseling Services:
Alone in London, Islington, Bradford Counselling Services, Bradford, Off Centre, Hackney, Off the Record, Bristol, Off the Record, Croydon, YPAS, Liverpool, Stepforward, Tower Hamlets

4. What are YIACS
An integrated health and wellbeing model offering a universal access point to targeted and specialist help.
Services offer:
A range of interventions ‘under one roof’
Young person-centred
Open to a wide age range e.g. 13 to 25
Holistic approach, meeting multiple and complex needs
Multi-disciplinary teams, providing wrap-around support
Flexible access routes, including through open door ‘drop-in’ sessions
Free, independent and confidential

5. Study design
8 local YIACS across the country; operating under an agreed protocol
Implementing measures recognised by Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) with year olds
Data collection on range and severity of issues presented (Current View)
Session by session outcomes monitoring:YP-CORE ( YO) & CORE-10 (17-25 YO)
Data on young people’s satisfaction with the services: (CHI ESQ with some additional questions)

6. Participants (to date)
230 participants (200 CHI-ESQ)
Data from 45 counsellors
162 female (70.4%), 65 male (28.3%), 3 not stated (1.3%)
Age: (median 17)
Ethnicity: 35 Black/Black British (15.2%), 121 White British (52.6%), 22 Asian/Asian British (9.6%), 19 Mixed (8.3%), 12 White Other (5.2%)

7. Presenting Issues (to date)
Family difficulties (most common): 45.9% moderate or severe
Depression/low mood: 38.1% moderate or severe
General anxiety : 37.4% moderate or severe
Disturbed by traumatic event: 28.3% moderate or severe
Anxiety in social situations: 23.6% moderate or severe
Self-harm: 15.3% moderate or severe
Experiences of abuse or neglect: 28.2% moderate or severe

8. Number of sessions (to date)

9. Number of sessions
Mean number of sessions = 5.4
Median number of sessions = 4
% of clients having just one session = 32.2
Very similar to school based counselling

10. Results

11. Outcomes
First CORE: 20.7 (SD = 6.8)
Last CORE: 15.3 (SD = 7.8)
Significant improvements (p<.001)
Effect size: 0.79 (large)
In a number of cases, yps may still be midway through therapy rather than completed and already results are looking good!)

13. (e.g. Welsh counselling strategy = 18.6)
Comparative distress
Baseline scores on YP-CORE (21.0) for clients in VCS appear higher than those in school-based counselling
(e.g. Welsh counselling strategy = 18.6)

14. YP Service Satisfaction
Very high levels of satisfaction on CHI- ESQ (range 0-36)
Mean = 34.7 (SD = 1.8)
Median = 35
Mode = 36 (44% of all scores)

15. CHI ESQ Satisfaction Score

16. ‘Overall, the help I received here was good’
Rating the help
‘Overall, the help I received here was good’
– 98. 5% indicated
‘Certainly True’

17. Usefulness of outcome measures
‘I found it helpful to complete an outcome questionnaire at the start of each session’
52.9% indicated ‘Certainly True’
29.4% indicated ‘Partly True’
17.6% indicated ‘Not true’

18. Next steps
Study will continue for at least a year
Publication of paper
Use findings to inform/influence policy and service development at DH and NHSE
Local dissemination to inform service planning and commissioning